FOOTY FAIR

Europe's Top 10 "Most Marketable" Footballers

2015-08-22T16:00:00.000-04:00

"Intelligence" company Repucom (repucom.net) is a solution provider with a list of services of which many we here at FootyFair don't even understand. What we do understand however are statistics and if the stats are in any way associated with the beautiful game , we are all over it.

Recently Repucom has released analysis of the top 10 most marketable footballers in Europe, using such data as global recognition, trust, appeal and existing sponsorship and revenue. Here is the complete list as compiled by Repucom.

FC Barcelona Returning to Sponsorless Kit

2014-10-09T06:00:00.000-04:00

Johan Cryuff should be a very happy man this week. No, he hasn’t won any award or even been handed a front office position with Barcelona, but his wish of seeing the Barcelona kit without a sponsor might be coming true in the near future.

According to reports coming out of Spain, FC Barcelona could be making a move back to a sponsor less kit once their current deal with Qatar Airways expires in 2016.

FC Barcelona was one of the last big clubs if no the last to adopt a kit sponsor. Up until the 2007-08 season they didn’t have a kit sponsor and in that season that added a non-commercial sponsor to the front of the jersey, Unicef. 2011, Barcelona added their first commercial sponsor, Qatar Foundation, which eventually moved to Qatar Airways in 2013-14.

The deal was worth 150 million euros and was a five year deal signed with Qatar Sports Investment, which started by using Qatar Foundation as the sponsor name and eventually Qatar Airways as I mentioned above.

Later this month during the clubs general assembly the discussion will happen and a decision will most likely be made in which direction FC Barcelona will go as far as their kit sponsorship. Nike will have to be notified by September of 2015, so time for a decision may end up being sooner rather than later.

This past summer FC Barcelona signed a smaller partnership with Beko that saw their logo appear on the kit sleeve, and while smaller sponsorships may continue to happen, a move to a traditional sponsor less kit is something most purist and die hard Barcelona fans would gladly welcome.

Santiago Bernabeu Naming Rights Worth €500 Million

2014-09-23T06:00:00.000-04:00

According to reports from Marca, Real Madrid is close to a deal that would see them sell the Santiago Bernabeu stadium naming rights for about 500 million euros.

The stadium is currently named after former player and President, Santiago Bernabeu, who was largely responsible for Real Madrid’s to prominence in European football during the 20th century. This deal if indeed goes through, will be something that not every Real Madrid fan and purist will see as a positive. While the money injection to the Real Madrid safes will be important, losing the epic and iconic name of Santiago Bernabeu, in replacement of something else will not be an easy pill to swallow for most.

The Spanish newspaper, Marca, reports that the deal could be reached with International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), which is owned by the Government of Abu Dhabi. It would a 20 year contract, worth around 500 million euros which turns out to be about 25 million euros per year until 2034.

IPIC also owns the Spanish multinational oil company CEPSA (Compañía Española de Petróleos), so when looking at possible names for the stadium, CEPSA could be one of the names or even Abu Dhabi, since the oil company is owned by the government of the country as I mentioned above.

Real Madrid will be using the money to refurbish the stadium, and the new name won’t be agreed upon until the work on the stadium is completed. There is a possibility of a merger of names that would still see Santiago Bernabeu on the name with the addition of another name to it. Florentino Perez knows that the fallout from changing the stadium name could be massive, but he also knows that the club needs the funds to be able to refurbish the stadium.

Selling of the naming rights to a stadium is very common in modern football, most teams have taken that path, but fans do not always want to see it happen, especially when you are talking about a stadium as iconic as Bernabeu. It won’t be an easy sell for Perez, but perhaps the solution will come by having two names associated with the stadium allowing the current one to still be part of the new stadium name.

I hate to see stadiums like this lose their name over a large sponsorship deal, but I also understand the business side of it. Having said that hearing commentators like Ray Hudson calling a game and referring to the stadium as CEPSA stadium or Abu Dhabi stadium will be without a doubt strange.